Queens Birthday long weekend Alice Springs

A high profile across the community was kept by the Alice Springs Police in an attempt to curb bad behaviour by revellers during the long weekend.

Alice Springs Police maintained a visible presence across town, at the Finke Desert Race Start/Finish line and the Aboriginal Community of Finke throughout the three days.

Superintendent Jody Nobbs said Police had an enormous weekend conducting RBTs and patrols across large areas in and around Finke.

“Alice Springs Police have effectively kept coverage across an area of 300km where we conducted five RBT stations and more than 2000 breath tests, said Supt Nobbs

“One person was caught high-range drink driving (0.215%) and two people returned medium-range blood alcohol readings and two returned low-range blood alcohol readings, which is disappointing as the message remains the same year in and year out – don’t drink and drive.

“We estimated there were 15,000 people camped along 266km of the race course during the long weekend.

“There were several car crashes and lots of injuries, but these were on the track and efficiently taken care of by other emergency services.

“Overall, it was a good weekend and the majority of people attending behaved, but it was not without its issues and we were made aware of incidents in which people were doing the wrong thing.

“The Finke Desert Race long weekend is a long awaited event on the social calendar, so it’s disappointing when and if a minority ruin it for the rest of us.”